Getting the green house ready to go
With freezing temperatures over by this time of year in the South its time to start using the long warm spring and summer to grow some plants. Though being my first green house I am learning how to get it all working. During the middle of the day, it can be over 115F (46C) inside. This is too hot for many of the plants I want to grow including cannabis. I need to get temps under 100F, luckily there is a fan built into the green house. But with no power wired to it I would have to run a long extension cord from the house. Or set up a power supply, such as using batteries and solar array.
Using three 100w panels, a PWM charge controller and two batteries running in parallel its more than enough for a 80w fan. But long term I need more than that, such as humidifiers and a misting system to keep the relative humidity at happy cannabis levels between 50-70%.
It was such a pretty morning with the colors in the sky, glad I was able to capture a shot of it with the green house in the background.
First was to remove my old PWM charge controller, it has burned out after years of use.. It no longer regulates voltage and is dangerous for the batteries.
Using humidity and temperature controllers I hope it dial it all in. The screen reads out weird with my camera.
They are all powered by a 200w DC to AC inverter to get that 120V AC needed for indoor grow supplies.
For some reason my camera cannot read the displays, they look normal to me but not my camera.. lol
Testing my humidifiers, they are not enough to get me to the right levels. They just run constantly and the green house does not get above 30% RH which is no good.
I guess using the two humidifiers in my grow tent is not the same as a much larger green house that is not air tight in the first place. But once I add some misters I hope my problem will be resolved.
Needing to refill these tanks will be a near daily activity, unless the misters keep the relative humidity really high.
The sensor for the humidity, I need to find a better place to hang it.
We can see lots of stuff inside as I figure out how to deal with keeping the levels under control.
I even tried misting all the walls inside but did not make much of a difference.. I think the gravel they laid down on the floor is sucking up all the moisture.
Waiting on a digital timer to control the water pump for the misting system, then I can assemble that and see if we can get the humidity higher.
With the new charge controller installed hopefully it will keep the batteries happy. Honestly I should open up the batteries and check their water levels to make sure the old charge controller did not boil off too much.
Even though the cannabis plants cannot be moved out to the green house yet. There are some thriving plants inside the green house where they are happy with low humidity and high temps.. My cacti baskets.. And they are so happy one of them flowered for the first time.
The Eastern Prickly Pear makes some great looking flowers, I moved them out of the green house so hopefully they will get pollenated and I will get a couple cacti fruit.
So even though the green house is not complete, many of the desert plants inside are just fine with the current setup... haha
Nice. I started to assemble some little tiny greenhouse kit my wife bought online last weekend. It took me over an hour just to get the "base" assembled, lol. I may get out and do more, with it, but more tempted to toss it!
Ah yeah I have seen those ones that you build with metal pipes and a plastic material. I considered buying and building one. But there were pre-built ones about 30 minutes from where I lived so I just ended up going with that.
Greenhouse looks great
Thanks bud
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I don't have any knowledge on the green house, but looking at all these, I feel the cost is pretty high ? And cannabis would compensate the cost ?
Yes the purchase of the green house was quite a bit. But if you consider the power costs of growing cannabis indoors using high powered lights it costs me around $650 during the 8 month period it can take to grow large plants.
So long term, a few years from now.. I will offset the cost of the green house with the money saved growing cannabis outdoors using the sun instead of costly lights.
Makes sense.
Looking good!
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thanks man
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Oh man you really have yourself an ideal greenhouse! I love greenhouse grown cannabis too. Something about that sun that really brings out the terps
Thanks, just need to get the humidity dialed in and maybe another fan to keep the temps down in there. Then it should be all ready.
So true, I think the full spectrum rays of the sun are better than any grow light.
Oh my... the opuntia flowers look amazing!
They sure do, really glad they finally opened. Took around three years for them to get there.
I also got a huge optunia in the ground that is starting to flower now. I will need to get some pictures of it.
You continue to grow, contributing with all your effort, the best so that your plantations flourish and bear fruit according to the different temperatures that they can withstand, it is hard work, with a lot of intelligence, for great success, there you @solominer are advancing with success . Greetings from Venezuela.
Thanks, well glad you have been here along the way to see it all happen.
It is a lot of work but well worth it I think.
So you will always be successful. With a lot of faith and discipline, everything turns out very satisfactorily successes
Do you expect frost? Or is the greenhouse to keep critters from eating your plants? I have never used one so I am curious.
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The green house lets me control the humidity better along with co2 if I can seal it. But in general I think it just raises the temps for plants and can protect them from bugs like you said.
Frost should be over by this time of year, and wont need to worry about it until after September.
Good luck with your plants and it makes sense to be able to control the elements. We are fighting a fungus on our areca palms because of all of the rain.
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Greetings!
I have never used as small a greenhouse as this, but do have experience with ones ranging from 30'x120' and larger range. The larger it is, the easier to maintain the desired interior environment.
You could add roof vents that open/close automatically to exhaust excess heat. Very simple addition and operation. You would need ground level venting as well to facilitate air transfer.
But this, as well as utilizing the fan, will increase the difficulty of maintaining humidity as drier, cooler, air from outside is drawn in. Although cooler air will help with that once the temperatures are regulated. Kind of a Catch-22 situation.
Some 40% shade cloth covering the sunward exposures will reduce heat as well, and you can still have adequate sunlight for good growth.
As for humidity, not sure. That small of a space could be difficult, and/or the most expensive part, of the proposition. Most grow operations I have been around use commercial equipment for that.
Once it has plants, the transpiration rate and the additional moist soil will add some assistance as well.
Hope you find solutions! I'm sure it can be done.
Regards
Richard Taylor
Hey there, thanks for the feedback on my green house.
As of right now there is a single fan pulling air through, I do not think its enough so I may just add vents like you said and another fan on the opposite side of the green house to pull air through.
Good idea on the shade cloth, I will look into that if I cannot control the temps with enough air flow.
Yes, the humidity seems to be quite the challenge. Right now I am testing a misting system. Took some PEX along with sharkbite fittings and drilled threads into the pipe and mounted screw in misters.. Just getting the water pump figured out, but hoping a near constant misting in the green house will keep the humidity nice and high.. Much more moisture than my humidifiers can produce.
I'm currently in Thailand, where high enough humidity isn't a problem! Lol
Most of my experience comes from Eastern Colorado where 30% is high. Most everyone struggles some at first. But as the environment adapts, it can become easier. Misters should help over time. Just keep working on the overall environment, and you will find solutions.
If there is anything I can think of to help, I'll let you know. I will be back in Colorado on the 8th of June.
Regards
Richard Taylor
@solominer what a beautiful sunrise and see those colors in the sky, it's a gift from the universe. Btw, how cool that greenhouse, congratulations! Cheers🍻
Thank you, it sure is. Glad I could capture it in just the few minutes it looked that amazing.
Hehe yeah, looking forward to getting it all set up.